The Night of Loneliness and Companionship
by EpsilonMk46
Summary: When Lincoln is left with the whole house for himself, he is left both happy and sad with his newfound free time. But is he truly as alone as he thinks he is?


Lincoln is seen in his room late at night reading one of his comic books. Seems like an average day for him in the Loud House right? But what was different about this night was that for once in a lifetime, he was the only occupant aside from his little baby sister, Lily. Normally one would think that the boy was in his own personal paradise; but right now, a not so sad but not so happy look is on Lincoln face at the moment, as if he seems to be content with being alone, but also feels something is missing.

"It's weird; I always thought that this is what I always wanted," Lincoln said as he turned his head towards the audience. "I finally have a quiet place to read my comics in my undies and the whole house to myself for the whole night. So… why do I feel like something's missing here?"

As Lincoln already knew, his sisters were all away at sleepovers with their respective crushes (not _that_ kind of sleepover…. I don't think….) and Lincoln found himself all by his lonesome self for an entire night. Of course, that isn't to say he _had_ nobody to hang out with. Paige simply went on vacation to Washington D.C. and Clyde had come down with a case of the flu and had to be quarantined. With all of these circumstances aligned, Lincoln had finally gained what he always thought he wanted, a moment of peace and quiet so that a guy can read his comics in his undies.

And yet, a sense of uncertainty loomed over Lincoln as he lay on his bed. When one lives in a household of 13 noisy residents and they all disappear in a flash, they can't help but feel that a void has been created in their hearts due to a precipitous drop in auditory volume.

"That almost sounded like you took a page out of Lisa's book right there."

Oh… my bad. But with that being said, Lincoln still felt like he'd gotten what he wished for, but made a small mistake in doing so.

"*sigh* Maybe I should just go to bed and forget about it. I've already read all these issues anyway." Lincoln muttered as he felt his eyelids starting to close from exhaustion.

But just before he could surrender himself to dreamland, he heard a faint noise coming from the hall.

*giggle* *giggle*

"H-Huh? Wh-What was that?" Lincoln thought out loud as he dragged himself out of bed in order to investigate the source of the sound. As he went towards his bedroom door, he slowly creaked it open with the hinges making an eerily slow and rustic rasp every centimeter they moved. He then heard the noise again, but this time it was louder and more vehement in delivery.

*giggle* *giggle* *laughter*

Lincoln was shaking in his slippers as he finally managed to get the door open and proceeded to look around the hallway. He heard that the noise was coming from Lisa and Lily's room, but that didn't seem to make any sense to the white haired boy. He thought that Lisa was making some quote unquote "major scientific breakthrough that will revolutionize the field of modern medicine as we know it" with David, and Lily was supposed to have been put into bed already with her Teddy. How in the world could anything be able to make a noise in there?

Regardless, Lincoln still thought to investigate the noise as soon as possible. But as he was leaving the safety of his room, the boy could only find himself waddling like a penguin to his destination. You'd think that would be bad enough, but to make matters worse, with every footstep that Lincoln took the noise grew louder and even more frightening to the point where it echoed thought out the entire hall.

*laughter* *laughter* ***LAUGHTER***

Lincoln could barely contain his urge to pee himself from fright, and it continued this way for 3 agonizing minutes until he finally reached the door not even 4 feet away from his own.

"Wh-Whoever's in there, who are you and what do you want? A-Are you a g-g-ghost?!" Lincoln stammered as he tried to test the waters with his not so friendly visitor. Lincoln has had experience with the otherworldly before—well, as much experience as a live action TV show would give him—but he never thought he'd actually encounter an actual, bonafide spectral being in his life.

At the thought of actually meeting a ghost, Lincoln almost thought to high-tail it back to his room and barricade the door so nothing could penetrate his oasis. But he also realized that if he didn't do something, the laughter would torment him throughout the entire night and he'd never get a lick of sleep. And so, against all his better judgment and basic logic skills, he grabbed the doorknob with a trembling hand and moved at a snail's pace to turn it. But before he could even move the door an inch, the laughter suddenly became booming with sheer force and fear inducing delight.

 ***LAUGHTER* *LAUGHTER* *LAUGHTER***

Lincoln could only pray for his soul at this point, as he could sense his fear levels skyrocketing through the roof to a point of no return. When he opened the door to where he was able to get a tiny peek to what was inside, he looked through to see that there was nothing but pure darkness. Given that it was the middle of the night that should've been no surprise. But the strange thing about it was that the moment Lincoln looked inside… the noise went completely silent.

Lincoln then moved the door more and nothing happened. He moved it a little more and nothing happened. This pattern continued until the door hit against the wall, indicating that it could be opened no further.

The boy was completely baffled as to how this could've happened. Just seconds ago, he feared for his life from some menacing ghoul; and now he seems perfectly fine.

"H-hah! I scared the ghost away!" Lincoln exclaimed as he felt his ego inflate within him. "Yes! No monster can ever defeat THE Lincoln Loud! Oh hoh hoh hoh."

With his newfound courage, Lincoln thought to bring himself back to bed under the delusion that he'd vanquished a ferocious beast. But before he did so, he came up with the idea of giving Lily a good night kiss, just to he could pride himself even more as being a caring big brother who would do everything he could to defend his siblings.

But the very moment he took one step into the room...

 **RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUAUAAAAUAUAUAUAURRRRRRR!**

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!

…a monstrous beast sprang itself right in front of Lincoln's face giving him the jump scare of his life. Lincoln found himself reeling backward in complete fright and anguish as he felt his spontaneous confidence and courage being destroyed in an instant.

"S-S-S-Stay back! Don't come any closer! STOOOOOP!" Lincoln screamed as he kept walking backward out of the room and into the hall. He could barely make out anything in his sight from his levels of pure fright, but he could discern that the best looked like a ferocious, bearlike figure that was walking straight towards him. Eventually, Lincoln tripped on the carpet and fell with his back straight up against the wall. But before he could respond to any pain from the fall, his eyes were immediately centered upon the beast as it waddled straight towards him with its arm stretched out wide. The poor boy could only watch in terror as his imminent doom awaited him.

In a last ditch effort to reason with the beast, Lincoln pleaded for his life. "Wait a minute! W-We can talk about this right?! How about in exchange for my life, I give you all of my sisters' chocolate cookies? Wouldn't that be better than killing me?!" However, this only made the beast even more excited to run towards Lincoln, much to the white haired male's dismay and despair.

There was no way out of it. The beast had its sights dead set on the Loud boy and there were no possible means of escape. Realizing the end was near for him, Lincoln could only bring himself to close his eyes and brace himself for whatever the beast had in store for him. That was when the beast pounced, as it crawled straight onto Lincoln crotch. From there it climbed up to his stomach, then his neck, and last but not least his face. And then, the beast prepared for its ultimate attack; one so deadly that the world couldn't help but tremble at its sheer stopping power. With a clear view of its target, the beast took a deep breath, reeled its head all the way backward, and used all of its might to unleash a full onslaught of….

….slobbering raspberries.

…

…

…

…

"….wait…. what….?" Lincoln pondered as he cautiously opened one of his eyes to see that the "beast" was all over his face and was strangely… _playing_ with him. The boy couldn't believe his eyes; he was simply taken aback by the beast's sudden amiable behavior towards him when just moments ago it had been creeping towards him with the intent to kill.

"Y-you mean, you don't want to eat me?" Lincoln asked as he was still trying to comprehend the situation. The beast then looked at him and laughed like there was no tomorrow. The boy couldn't help but feel annoyed at this point as he wanted to put an end to this madness for good. He then grabbed the beast, pulled it away from his chest, and took a long look as to what this "beast" really was.

That was when he realized that he wasn't attacked by a beast at all! On the contrary, he was being _cuddled_ by none other than…

"…Lily?!" Lincoln exclaimed as he saw that he was holding his own baby sister in his hands. Not only that, but Lily also was holding Teddy with her that she walked behind to make herself look more intimidating. Seeing as how Lincoln has seen through her playful little trick, Lily thought that this was the best time to leap from his arms and plant herself onto her brother's chest.

"Oof! Hey, what are you doing?" Lincoln asked as he felt the impact from a surprising move like that. That was when he felt a ticklish feeling coming from his neck area that caused him to fall over laughing. In his fits of laughter, he saw that Lily was now giving him itty bitty nibbles at his chest as if she was pretending to be a monster that was trying to eat him. At the sight of this, Lincoln could only feel his heart melt to goo as he bared witness to such an adorable sight which left him with only one thing left to say.

"Aaaww… c'mere you little rascal!" With that line, the two engaged in a little tussle that involved Lincoln playfully tickling Lily under her armpits with Lily making more growling noises, nibbling, and raspberries all aimed to make her big brother happy and joyful.

This continued on for a whole 10 minutes, each one more pleasurable than the last before Lincoln and Lily both fell to the ground feeling fatigued from their little playtime. But Lincoln also had to set down the law, for he knew that it was way past both of their bed times. With this in mind, he begrudgingly had to say to his sister, "All right Lily. That sure was a fun surprise you had for me, but I think we need to put you back to bed. Okay?"

Lily then gave a very small frown to Lincoln as she started to become a little sad that she'd have to go to bed again. "No… no no Inkin." Lily cried, which caused Lincoln to feel sad himself. If only there was a way that he could keep the fun between him and his dear sister going. If only there was a loophole to their bedtime restrictions. If only…

That was the moment he looked towards his bedroom door, and almost immediately, he came up with the perfect solution. "Say, Lily," Lincoln started, causing Lily to look up at him with tiny tears in her eyes, "how would you like to sleep in my room with me?" At the sound of that, Lily's eyes began to dry up and a huge open smile formed on her face.

"Ya ya ya ya yaaayy!" Lily exclaimed while hugging her brother's torso to help contain her excitement. "Hahaha. Well, you asked for it then. Let's head in." Lincoln replied as he went straight to his room with Lily still clinging tightly to his chest. There, he got into his bed once more and looked at Lily while she was on his bed on all fours.

"Okay Lily, get really to snuggle in with your big brother Linky!" Lincoln said in a playful voice. Lily laughed again as she crawled over to her brother's side where she was tucked in by the boy nice and snug in his covers.

As Lincoln lay in his bed once more but this time with a little companion by his side, a sense of happiness and warmth passed over him. Just minutes ago, he felt empty from being alone in his bedroom with nothing but his comics to keep him occupied. But now he felt foolish for having thought that, because that whole time, he did have another with him in the Loud House.

"Wuv… you… Inkin… Wuv… you…" And now, that person was right beside him.

"I love you too Lily." Lincoln quietly said as he gently kissed her forehead and let himself drift off to sleep.

Tonight, he wasn't so lonely after all…


End file.
